Libya intervention criticized five years on.

The Guardian reported today on a report released by the Foreign Affairs committee on the UK governments intervention in Libya. The report criticised David Cameron and his government for carrying out the intervention without proper intelligence , effecting regime change and failing to help reconstruct the country following the fall of Gaddafi. The report was released five years after the UK and France with support from the US intervened in the Libyan civil war following a UN resolution passed to authorise a humanitarian corridor to enable civilians to escape the conflict. The report stated that these failures led to the country becoming a failed state on the verge of all out civil war. Yet this report confirmed exactly what many warned would happen should the UK and France remove Gaddafi from power in the days before and after the intervention. The removal of Gadaffi created a power vacuum that has split the country into two sides each establishing their own government and fighting each other for power. This has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and the ongoing civil war will possibly continue to kill thousands more in the coming months and years.

What's happening right now in Venezuela?

The eyes of the world, directed through the main stream media, has all it's focus on a country dealing with a political crisis that pits its socialist leader Nicolas Maduro against self-proclaimed president Guaido backed by the US government and a host of other countries in a quick servitude response to their master's bidding not least the UK government itself which unsurprising considering it's history of supporting any misadventures the US has become involved in the last 70 years.  The US government with it's usual playbook claims to be concerned about the humanitarian situation and has given support for a possible coup attempt by Gaudo with the possibly of military intervention if necessary to oust Maduro.

This should ring alarm bells for most educated people in this country and international law abiding governments as they will realise the statement above points out not just that what is happening is unconstitutional for Venezuela but international laws are also being violated. The National Assembly invoked a clause dealing with the abandonment of position in Article 233 of the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela as justification for declaring Juan Guadio the interim president declaring that the elections were invalid and Maduro is a de facto dictator and therefore the position of president does not exist.  It's clear to see how they have twisted the law using a fanciful interpretation to say the least.  Threats or aggression by a country towards another is violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter, a treaty to which almost every country has signed up to and are legally obliged to confirm to.  Veiled threats of aggression or invasion that have been coming from US government officials recently are illegal under international law and yet seem to be overlooked by the western main stream media and the allies of the US.

There is no doubt that the economic situation is dire and that the Venezuelan people are suffering due to shortages of food and basic supplies.  Corruption and mismanagement are part to blame and so may the socialist policies to blame that initially improved the life of the poor but were unsustainable in the long run but the situation has also been worsened by the sanctions unilaterally imposed by the US and it's allies.  This still does not give other countries the right to intervene in the internal affairs of a country or to coerce others to do so.  The typical playbook of the US involves the need to intervene on humanitarian needs, to impose sanctions on the target country's leaders, his associates and then to the country to spur dissent and dissatisfaction that may drive the populace to overthrow the government.   If this does not work, to then find that red flag incident often staged as the basis for invasion.  There are numerous examples of this in the last 70 years so few people could actually doubt this strategy and few could  doubt the destructive effects of meddling in other countries and worse invasion for the purposes of liberating the country.   Again many examples in just the last two decades- Iraq, Libya to name just two are proof of this.

If you still believe that the US has the interests of the people at heart consider that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.  No socialist country with rich resources is immune from US imperialism whose corporations are ever ready to become involved in the privatisation process that follows the installation of a puppet leaders and the lucrative contracts to extract the resource wealth of the country. 

Criticism of the government's policies and handling of the crisis should be heard of course and the UN and governments should help where required and facilitate any internal political processes as prescribed by  the UN Charter.  The media needs to be impartial and fair providing balanced reporting both to the Venezuelan people and the world.  This is not the case with the western mainstream media whose narrative comes from the elite that own them or the establishment that controls them.  The only truth can be found in alternative forms of media that people need to seek out but this time times and effort which most people are not willing to do instead relying on mainstream sources they perceive as trustworthy.

In the end the people of Venezuela need to resolve the political and economic crisis on their own without outside interference or threats of aggression. This may take time and longer than the people may hope but the alternative is fraught with danger and suffering as history of interventionism has shown.